Catering for Individual Dinner Needs

Cooking an evening meal is one thing but preparing a feast that keeps everyone happy can be a big ask.

I’m not even going to begin to talk about Baby Girl here as she’s a 2 year old fusspot on a completely different playing field BUT trying to cater for the different taste preferences that the rest of us have can require a bit of organisation.

Now that the bigger boys are teens I can accept that they’re on good terms with their tastebuds and that there are some foods that they just do not like. Same with the MOTH and I too. I figure that as long as everyone is getting a good balance of healthy and nutritious foods then I can be a bit accommodating to the variety of preferences whenever possible. With this little dinner making routine I have, it’s not all that hard, bit fiddly but certainly not hard and to me, that means WIN!

I know that as a starting point, I’ve got this:

• the MOTH prefers salads and is not so big on veges
• I prefer veges over salad but will happily eat both
• Big Boy really is not a salad fellow but will gladly eat veges
• Middle Young Man LOVES his salads but will eat veges if he has to

Instead of making one big salad or steaming one big pot of veges, I use 2 smaller tupperware containers for making big healthy salads for the MOTH and MYM and 2 individual microwave vege steamers which I can cram choc full of veges for us two vege lovers. I load each container with the produce of choice and the kitchen bench ends up looking something like this.

All 4 containers get popped into the fridge until dinner is ready. Veges get tossed into the microwave while salads get upended onto dinner plates and by the time the ‘other’ bit of the meal (like the steak, snags, chicken or fish etc) is served, the veges are done and we’re good to go!

I’ve found that the benefits of this system, for me anyway, far outway the fiddlies – it doesn’t take much longer at all, everyone thinks they’re lucky to escape having things they don’t like thrown onto their plate

, the containers can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge and you can ensure everyone is getting a good set of nutrients into them. Phew!!

How do you keep everyone’s tastes satisfied at your place?